Irish startup Luna Systems has secured €1.5 million to accelerate commercial rollout of its AI-driven camera safety hardware for bikes and motorcycles.
The late seed funding round was led by cycling-focused VC Fundracer alongside EIT Urban Mobility, with additional support from Enterprise Ireland. The funding will be used to bring Luna’s hardware to market, fast-tracking the company’s transition from a safety software specialist into a full system provider.
Luna rethinks the automotive sector’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) technology into Advanced Rider Assistance Systems (ARAS) for two-wheelers, aiming to give cyclists and motorcyclists AI-powered protection like car drivers have.
“If you look at innovation in automotive versus cycling over the past 10 to 15 years, the contrast is huge,” Luna Systems’ Co-Founder Maria Diviney told Zag Daily, stating that the automotive sector has undergone a “full connected-technology revolution”.
“Cars have cameras, radar, lidar, software updates, data pipelines and safety systems that continuously improve and become increasingly sophisticated. Even entry-level cars now ship with technology that would have carried a premium price tag a decade ago. This technical evolution has resulted in fewer crashes and fatalities.”
Diviney said that, whilst motorcycles are a step further ahead, bikes have not received the same level of technical attention, leading to a “serious lack of meaningful accident reduction for cyclists”.
After nearly six years of developing its Vision AI rider-safety software, Luna plans to launch two hardware products this year: a dual AI camera system for OEM integration and its first consumer-facing cycling product.
“Imagine you drive a car and it doesn’t have the three mirrors,” Fundracer Managing Partner René Wiertz told Zag Daily. “Can you turn left? Can you turn right? You have no idea. You have to physically turn around to look behind you but then you’re not looking at the road ahead of you anymore. It would be unthinkable. That’s why there’s three mirrors in a car. But bikes have nothing.
“A camera solves that basic problem and once you have a camera you can start collecting data on where accidents are happening across the city. That’s why Luna’s technology is a breakthrough technology. They’ve developed a compact form factor for a price that’s accessible to any two-wheeler company. Not only will Luna’s solutions increase the safety of the bike rider but they will increase the safety of the entire micromobility industry because of the data that’s being collected.”
Luna’s dual AI system for OEMs
The dual AI camera system, previously examined by Zag ahead of its 2025 Eurobike debut, combines front and rear-facing cameras to deliver real-time safety intelligence for cyclists.
Forward-facing capabilities include “reverse blind spot detection” which alerts riders when they are travelling in the blind spot of larger vehicles. Rear-facing features include blind spot alerts, rear vehicle proximity detection and close-pass detection.
Vehicle OEMS will have the option of camera integration at the point of manufacture for e-bikes or a battery-powered after-market solution for road bikes. Whilst Luna targets global manufacturers, Europe is a key focus with plans to prioritise markets with high cycling levels such as the DACH region, Benelux, UK, France and Italy.
Luna Oculus: Bringing AI safety directly to consumers
Alongside its B2B offering, Luna is preparing to launch its first consumer cycling product: the Luna Oculus.
The Luna Oculus is a rear-facing AI camera with on-board AI compute capabilities that cyclists pair with a connected smartphone app.
The app provides a livestream, turning a cyclist’s phone into an AI-powered rearview mirror. When any vehicle or bike approaches too closely, the app delivers both visual and audio alerts giving cyclists time to adjust their road position and ride more defensively.
Riding data can then be used to understand where blackspots are in the city, such as dangerous junctions or cycling corridors. Diviney said the aim is to provide a “consolidated” safety solution compared to existing “fragmented” offerings.
“Cycling radar products were a majorly important first step and have absolutely proven that riders want awareness. At the same time, helmet cameras have grown in usage, showing that riders want evidence,” she said.
“What we are doing is taking the concept of the bike camera into the AI era, creating a new product category that combines real-time warnings, intelligent and automatic evidence capture. On top of that, we’re putting the rider’s data to work to provide much deeper insights like vehicle proximity blackspots. This data is key to help riders make informed decisions about route choices.”
Why this technology matters
Cyclists and pedestrians account for more than a quarter of global road deaths.
In the UK, Sustrans’ 2023 report found that road and personal safety is the single biggest barrier to cycling. Across the pond, traffic safety is cited as the main barrier for both non-riding men and women in the US.
“Improving safety is one side of the coin – the other is adoption,” said Diviney. “Urban cycling adoption has stalled in many regions not because people don’t want to ride but because they don’t feel safe mixing with traffic. At the same time, cities are asking people to leave their ADAS-equipped cars at home while offering far fewer safety assurances on a bike than people would accept in a car.
“That is the mismatch that needs fixing.”
For Diviney, the conversation is not so much about bikes catching up with cars. It’s about recognising that connected safety has become a baseline expectation.
“I believe the cycling industry is now ready to catch up with that reality.”
